Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-12-10
THE MESSAGE.
A PRESIDENT TAKES BUT A SHORT
TIME IN WRITING IT.
Various Matters Contained in It Carefully
Discussed at the Cabinet Meetings--How
It is Hid from the Public-Sent Under
Strict Guard to Congress at the Capitol.


Especial Corresp ondencel
1t takes the President very short time to
really write his message The mere manual
labor could be done before lunch any day.
because the document, at least the first part
of it, is made up of liberal clippings and
pastings from the reports of his Cabinet Off
GERS and department chiefs; but the Presi-
dent has to spend days going over these re-
ports, and sometimes whole nights are passed
in reading over the dry figures and harder
facts. He has to digest much that is thrown
away to be able to intellgently select what is
needed.
AT the Cabinet meetings, Just before the
message is given out, the various matters and
recommendations are discussed, and the
Presidents advisers thus help him in select
ing matter which should be brought before
Congress and the country. If the President
is fortunate in having a clever secretary
and Mr.. Cleveland seems to be eminently so
in this respect-that important official may
help him a great deal in the laborious part
of writing the message.
For few weeks before Congress assemblies
the Presidents private library or study is a
Strengthening place. The desk is covered
"iSh pooho Suiloioly pliItcu anu pouiu'
These are the various reports from the
several departments, and consist of what
are called in printing offices proofs" but are
cut and bound together in the style of regu-
lar reports. When the President wishes to
select any part of the report he can cut any
page without fear of destroying the next, be-
cause it is only printed on one side. The
reports having been gone over, clipped and
pasted. are again prepared for inspection and
reread and again clipped. Thus by carefully
reading and "boiling"-to use a newspaper
expression-the President gets about the ma
terials he wants to use. Having reviewed
the work of the departments and
called attention to the recommends
tions, he then begins to work on
the real part of the message. AS soon as
the pages are prepared for the printer they
are sent to the government printing office.
where the public printer has select corps of
men, who are put upon their honor. and the
copy is given ont to them. The public
printer, or the foreman in charge of that
particular department, usually cuts the mes
sage up into such small parts, and so
deity distributes it among the compositors,
that no one man at one time is given enough
of the copy" to allow him to gain a salts
factory idea of what public question or sub
ject the President is discussing. The matter
when set up, is collected at night and placed
i'll the great safe under lock and key. Proofs
are carefully taken and sent only to the
White House, where the President revises
them and returns them to the care of the
public printer
1t has always been considered great Jour
nalistic feat to secure the message in advance
Enterprising newspaper men have tried over
and over again to secure pro is, or some idea
of what the President is to report to Con-
gress. Oftentimes ideas of what is going to
be in the document leak out through Cabi-
net officers or prominent men who have
been consulted by the President, and these
find their way into the papers, When
it is unusually dull in Washington,
and it is time when the President
should be at work on his annual
message, stories of what he will say and
recommend find their way into the WASH
ington correspondence with great diversity
Anyone who has followed the course of
events, and has watched the development of
public affairs, can very easily give the people
some idea of what the President will say in
his message. Oftentimes this information is
quite correct, but it is more likely that while
it has been enlarged upon in the press, it APP
pears as very small item in the message.
There have only been two or three occa-
sions when the message has been stolen out
right and published before it was handed to
Congress. President Hayes was one of the
unfortunate men in this respect. His mes
sage was in a newspaper the morning it
went to Congress, and the senators and con-
gressmen on their way down town read it at
least several hours before it was placed upon
their desks in the halls of the national leg
slature
The day Congress assemb les great bundles
of messages are sent to the Capitol, and are
placed under guard so as not to be disturbed
before the document officially reaches the
two bodies. The message in writing is placed
in a large official envelope at the White
House and given in charge of Assistant Sec
rotary Pruden, who, when notified that Con-
gress has assembled, gets into the White
House buggy and is driven rapidly to the
Capitol. The carriage makes its way from
the north portal of the White House
down to the avenue, and thence by
Fifteenth street past the treasury to the
avenue proper. Takingthe south side which
is less frequented, the coachman drives at
rapid rate down the broad boulevard, up
through the Capitol grounds, and under the
portal to the Senate entrance. The mes
sage is taken to the Senate, and Mr.. Pruden,
entering the door, is met by Captain Bassett,
the old assistant doorkeeper of the Senate.
This official is ever on the lookout for the
arrival of the message, and when he sees
Mr.. Pruden, or any messenger from the
White House, he hastily hobbies up the
main aisle and takes his position facing the
President of the Senate.
Captain Bassett is peculiar old man with
ong white hair and long white beard When
he catches the eye of the President he makes
an automatic low bow, and announces in
set terms, "a message from the President of
the United States" Mr.. Pruden then steps
forward and says: II am directed by the
President of the United States to present
message in writing" He then hands over
the valuable document into the hands of
the old doorkeeper, who takes it at once to